Ruger stripping PC off

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

Now that the snow has melted I recovered a number of cast bullets I shot earlier. To my dismay they were all stripped to bare lead.

I am wondering if this is a common problem with Ruger barrels? And if there's a fix to it.

[GregLaROCHE]

It is not common for PC to strip off in any guns. Maybe you are not doing something right or there is a problem with the powder you are using. Do a smash test with a hammer on some of your boolits and see how the PC holds up. If it chips off and doesn’t stay adhered, there’s a problem.

[Recycled bullet]

Are you shooting a revolver with undersized cylinder throat diameters?

My Ruger sp101 leads ferociously with cast bullets for this reason.

If the bullets are stripping their coating you will find ferocious leading inside the gun .

Have you inspected the gun?

[Smoke4320]

Need a good bit more info to get a handle on what might be going on
Ruger What? model , caliber, barrel length, load data please

[armoredman]

PC should never just "strip off" - there is something weird going on here. And no, the very few Rugers I have fired with PC boolits have stripped off any PC.

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

The Ruger is an SR1911 Officer style 9mm.
I am using Smoke's Bacon grease. And I used both CFE Pistol & BE-86. I slugged the barrel & it is .3556" diameter at the grooves, bullets are Lee TL356-95-rf & 356-125-2r sized .357".
5.1gr CFE & 5.3 gr BE-86 with the 125 grain bullets
6.0 gr BE-86 & 5.7 gr CFE with the 95 grainers.

The rifling marks are not very crisp either. At 10 yards accuracy is ok but drops of quickly if I back up.
Cleaning/inspecting the gun afterwards there was no leading in the bore.

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

313066 Sorry, I can't figure out why the picture shows up sideways. It looks noraml on my computer until I upload it.

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

313067

[armoredman]

Slug that bore, something is waaaay off.

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

Slug that bore, something is waaaay off.

You mean to pound a cast bullet through it?

[Smoke4320]

From those pics of the yellow bullets the pc is still there. Friction stain has rubbed gray buts it's still there.
I agree you need a pound cast/ slug the barrel. As you indicate the rifling looks very thin. Could be a chamber to rifling choking or even just way too little rifling.

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

Ok. Slugged the bore:
The yellow one is the 356-95-rf.
The red is a.360 roundball.
313076

[Recycled bullet]

I like to do is run an oiled patch through the barrel on a tight fitting jag and inspect it for debris with a bright light.

If there is debris in the barrel I like to wrap strands around the copper cleaning bore brush to increase effectiveness.

I use either 0000 steel wool or strands of copper wool wrapped around the brush to make a tight fit. I like to squirt synthetic auto transmission oil into the barrel before scrubbing.
It makes cleaning more effective for me. The copper wool is softer and less aggressive , confirm it with a magnet.

[shooter bob]

And the measurements are

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

Maybe this picture shows them better. The paint worn off. That is bare lead, not gray fouling you see.
313077

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

Oh yeah. Measurements. The 95 grain RF was sized .357 before and after the widest parts of the bullet are ~0.3554"
On the roundball which was unsized (.360) and the widest parts were around 0.3556"

[Recycled bullet]

Are these bullets cast of SOWW

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

Mostly COWW. Some range scrap.

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

Any chance seating the bullet nearer the rifling would help?

[hades]

No, that's not going have have much, if any impact.

If the PC was stripped off when shooting I'd think the barrel would have gotten badly fouled.

Have you ever noticed any leading shooting your bullets?


The smash test is a great suggestion.

What's you cure process for coating bullets?

[Recycled bullet]

How do the bullets look like after sizing, before assembly, into loaded cartridges?

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

Included in the first photos are one unfired bullet and one smash-tested bullet. Bullets from both molds passed the smash test. I put em in a toaster oven at 400 degrees for 25 minutes.

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

How do the bullets look like after sizing, before assembly, into loaded cartridges?

In posts #7 & #8 I included a photo of an unfired, sized bullet, plus a smashed one. I see the unfired 95 grainer is obscured by the smashed one. But you can see the 125 grainer pretty good.

[Recycled bullet]

Apologies my eyes were attracted to the stripped bullets

[Wheelguns 1961]

Are you sure that you aren’t stripping the pc when loading? Are you expanding your cases properly, so that you aren’t swaging down your bullets?

[NyFirefighter357]

Are you sure that you aren’t stripping the pc when loading? Are you expanding your cases properly, so that you aren’t swaging down your bullets?

Can you pull a bullet and see how the PC looks after pulling?

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

Can you pull a bullet and see how the PC looks after pulling?

It'll have to wait until tomorrow. But I think I can do that.

[popper]

The 'orange peel' look of the noses says they aren't cured.

[BamaNapper]

According to the Hodgdon site the loads are right at max. My first guess is the boolit sliding and shaving before the spin catches up with the rifling. I've done that with a hot load and soft boolits. There was essentially no rifling on the recovered boolits. But then I ask myself where the residual is ending up if the barrel is clean. Maybe a shot through a piece of cloth a couple feet in front of the barrel would show the shaved lead exiting the muzzle. And I don't know what your backstop is, but the boolits don't look terribly deformed. So they don't end up looking like it was a hot load and a soft boolit. Still, I'd back up to a starting load and see if the recovered boolits are doing the same thing. Especially with the 95 gr boolits, not a lot of surface there to engage the rifling.

Is it possible to have a barrel where the bore ends up somewhat tapered, perhaps a little oversized near the chamber? I've never heard of such a thing. It would slug correctly, but may also allow the boolit to slide through part of the rifling. But it would also be noticeable when you slugged the bore, as the boolit would push easier through that section of the rifling.

And I assume you're not trusting the dial on the front of the oven when it says 400 degrees. My knob is marked with a sharpie since 400 on an oven thermometer shows up somewhere around 430 on the dial.

I'm definitely going to keep an eye on this thread. You've got a weird one here.

[GregLaROCHE]

Included in the first photos are one unfired bullet and one smash-tested bullet. Bullets from both molds passed the smash test. I put em in a toaster oven at 400 degrees for 25 minutes.

Have you double checked the oven’s temperature with a thermometer? It’s possible is not getting up to the temperature on the dial.

[243winxb]

Size to .355" https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?media/albums/taurus-g3c-9mm-luger.317/

[megasupermagnum]

Pull a few bullets and measure them. It certainly wouldn't be the first time brass was sizing down a bullet when seating.

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

Have you double checked the oven’s temperature with a thermometer? It’s possible is not getting up to the temperature on the dial.

Yes I have a separate thermometer I put in the o en. The oven is surprisingly "on" at the 400 dgreesetting.

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

According to the Hodgdon site the loads are right at max. My first guess is the boolit sliding and shaving before the spin catches up with the rifling. I've done that with a hot load and soft boolits. There was essentially no rifling on the recovered boolits. But then I ask myself where the residual is ending up if the barrel is clean. Maybe a shot through a piece of cloth a couple feet in front of the barrel would show the shaved lead exiting the muzzle. And I don't know what your backstop is, but the boolits don't look terribly deformed. So they don't end up looking like it was a hot load and a soft boolit. Still, I'd back up to a starting load and see if the recovered boolits are doing the same thing. Especially with the 95 gr boolits, not a lot of surface there to engage the rifling.

Is it possible to have a barrel where the bore ends up somewhat tapered, perhaps a little oversized near the chamber? I've never heard of such a thing. It would slug correctly, but may also allow the boolit to slide through part of the rifling. But it would also be noticeable when you slugged the bore, as the boolit would push easier through that section of the rifling.

And I assume you're not trusting the dial on the front of the oven when it says 400 degrees. My knob is marked with a sharpie since 400 on an oven thermometer shows up somewhere around 430 on the dial.

I'm definitely going to keep an eye on this thread. You've got a weird one here.

That could be that they're at the top of the pressure. The same loads work well in a Micro9 excepting that I size them to .356" for the Kimber.

The near-perfect nose condition is because they were stopped by snow. Although several of the 95 grainers hit a number of 1 gallon water jugs.

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

Ok. Here's the pulled bullet:
313124

313125

313126

[Rickf1985]

I have never done PC but .0024 over bore size seems a bit tight to me. I will be watching this as I am always up to learning something new.

[Smoke4320]

I will say that in all the calibers my customers PC 9MM seems to be by far the one that gives beginners more issues. many 9MMs end up with a bullets sized .3575 or even .358
my own Taurus 9MM required .358 and an HK needed .3575 to shoot without leading and to get accuracy

[charlie b]

Yours look like mine did when fired in my HK VP9. The barrel in mine has no throat. Just the sharp edge of the chamber and 'rifling' (HK is polygonal). There was a bit of build up of PC/lead at the edge of the chamber. I don't shoot cast in it anymore. If I wanted to I'd get a conventional barrel for it and have Doug throat it. And, yes, bullets were sized at .356 and I tried .358. Slugged bore at .355.

OTOH, my 1911 shoots cast just fine and loves PC bullets (.45acp).

Sent from my SM-P613 using Tapatalk